Best Two Out of Three
by HotaruGFC
Summary: What kind of woman would really catch Kaiba's eye? And how desperate do you have to be for a job to challenge him?


_Disclaimer: I own the girl, but not Kaiba. Oh the things I would do if I did..._

_The story came about when I had read the autobiography and other "personal" sections. It made me think, just what would it take to get Kaiba's attention?_ _Please review if you feel like it. I might be prompted to write more..._

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**Best Two Out of Three**

"Kaiba-sama, Wait!" I called out to him as he left the room, dismissing the proposals of four others in addition to my own. The others stared at me in shock.

"I'm sorry, Ms… Griffin," The aide said, glancing at my name tag. "But Mr. Kaiba will not see anymore proposals today." The aide towered above my small frame, blocking my way as my once chance to reach my goal was purposefully striding for the door.

"But I am only here until tomorrow!" My ire was rising; I could not let this opportunity get away.

"I am sorry, Miss." The aide turned away from me and I caught sight of the white-suited young man stopping at the reception desk. I didn't want to use my last ditch effort, but now it was not an option.

"Seto Kaiba, I challenge you." I called across the lobby of the building. His tall form stopped and he turned his cool, calculating eyes toward me. I locked his gaze with mine, determined to not give in to his harsh stare. As I continued to hold his gaze without wavering, he approached me. Like his aide, he towered above me, a cool, collected giant dwarfing my fiery and determined spirit. I could not back down!

"You challenge me? To what? What can you do that would not waste my time?" He spat coldly, his eyes never wavering from mine. The game had already begun.

"A game… of your choice. I made the challenge; you get to choose the weapon." Oh, God. I felt like he could freeze me with that stare… but I stood firm, not once taking my eyes from his. A small smirk turned up one corner of his mouth. I don't know if he was amused, or is he was about to run me through. Either way, I had to bear it.

"A game, you say… of my choice…" He looked a wee bit thoughtful for a moment before the frigid mask returned. "You realize you have no way to beat me."

"That, sir, is up for debate." Stand firm, Stand firm. Don't let his mind games get you before the actual contest even begins!

He looked at me skeptically.

"Well, let's see just how wrong you are, Ms…" He looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell him my name. I would not give in.

"If you had taken the time to know a little about the people presenting design proposals today, you wouldn't be stumbling now." My eyes narrowed on his.

"Very well, Mystery Woman. I will accept your challenge. We will play a game of Duel Monsters. But what do you wager if I win?" His eyes narrowed to match mine and he looked me over quickly. I couldn't quite tell if he was sizing me up physically or as an opponent, but I was pretty certain it was the latter.

"If you win, I will leave and never bother you again. And if you don't play, I will harass you until you do listen to me." He considered the proposition briefly.

"I'd rather gain a little more for wasting my time with you…" Again he smirked and his eyes quickly traveled my body. Suddenly, I had the feeling that I should have worn a pant suit rather than the skirt I had on…

"What did you have in mind?" my eyes and demeanor were still determined. He lowered his voice to nearly a whisper.

"When I win, you spend the night with me." His eyes flashed with a cold fire.

"Fine, I'll play your mind game for now. But when I win, you will listen to my proposal, over dinner." I can't let him get to me, the sick fuck.

"If you win…" he replied, his voice a whisper still. "Ok. I accept your wager. Now for conditions of the game. 2000 life points, fusion monsters cannot attack on the fusion round…" he started rambling on about the rules.

"I know the rules." I smirked at him this time. "But, I have a condition of my own."

He raised his eyebrow.

"We each use only a random sealed deck. We have fifteen minutes to look through our own decks and then have two minutes to look through the other's deck and to shuffle it." He looked at me, his eyes still firmly locked on mine, but now they held a tinge of surprise. Perfect, he didn't see that coming. He recovered quickly.

"Very, very sly, Mystery Woman. You seek to handicap me before the duel even begins." His voice was filled with menace.

"No, not handicap. Level the playing field. Besides, how else can we truly test who has a better grasp of the rules and a true understanding of the cards if we used only the cards we know?" I saw that he could find no flaw in my logic; I could read that much in his impressed smile.

"Very well, your conditions are fair." He glanced away briefly, scanning the floor beside him. Victory! Round one goes to the short redhead!

It didn't take long to get a couple of random sealed decks and for each of us to examine our cards. My deck was nothing spectacular, and I could tell by glancing at him, that Kaiba was not entirely pleased with his deck either. I could see, however, that he was already deep into forming a strategy by the deep furrow in his brow. I already had mine.

The fifteen minutes were up too soon. But we switched decks and prepared them for play. As I took my deck from him, he caught my hand.

"You will lose, Mystery Woman."

"We shall see." My voice was smug.

The aide called a start to the duel. Thankfully there was no time limit on our game, because the back and forth plays in each round grew ridiculous. Everything I threw at him, he countered beautifully, just as I did with everything he sent my way. On our final draw, it was clear to both of us that we were evenly matched. Even in the final rounds, we had identical life points. Such was the way of the game to the last card. The game ended in a draw.

"How did you do it?" he asked slightly bewildered. "I've never had a draw before. How did you counter my strategy so effectively? What trick did you use?"

"It was no trick, Kaiba-sama. I used a sound strategy that happened to have been designed to counter your strategy specifically." I tried to keep my reply nonchalant, but was having little luck. I just played the former Duel Monsters champion to a draw. My spirit was soaring.

"How did you know my strategy?" His eyes hardened again.

"Lucky guess? Or maybe I just know my way around the game. But you may believe what you like." I brought my eyes to match his intensity.

"Hm…" He looked skeptical. "We still haven't settled our wager." His voice dropped in pitch and volume and ended up being a husky whisper.

"How about the best two out of three?" My lips turned up in a small fierce smile.

"Sounds good to me." His smirk returned. "And you never did tell me your name. Or would you rather be called Mystery Woman in bed tonight?"

"It's Samantha, Samantha Griffin."

"Well, Ms. Griffin. How about we discuss the next round over dinner?" His smile grew a slight bit ravenous, vicious and almost hungry. He was a formidable opponent and hopefully my future employer. But I would be lying if I said that I didn't like where this was going. And who knows… my plane didn't leave until after noon anyway…


End file.
